A winner of the Metropolitan Opera 2012 National Council Auditions, and of the 2012 Operalia competition, American soprano Janai Brugger is a second-year artist in LA Opera’s Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program where she will sing the role of Musetta in La Bohème under the baton of Maestro Patrick Summers. She will also cover the role of Juliette in Romeo et Juliette, conducted by Plácido Domingo. Also in the 2011-2012 season, Ms. Brugger will make her debut with the Palm Beach Opera as Juliette. In Summer 2011 Ms. Brugger attended the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute under the direction of Brian Zeger. In the 2010-2011 season at LA Opera, Ms. Brugger sang the roles of Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro under the baton of Plácido Domingo and The Page in Rigoletto under the baton of James Conlon. She also covered the roles of Mrs. Neruda in the world premiere of Daniel Catan’s Il Postino (cond. Grant Gershon) and The Governess in The Turn of the Screw (cond. James Conlon).
Ms. Brugger is a native of Chicago, IL. She recently received her Master’s Degree from The University of Michigan, having studied with renowned soprano Shirley Verrett. There she performed the role of Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, conducted by Martin Katz and directed by Joshua Major. Ms. Brugger received her Bachelor’s Degree from DePaul University where she studied with Elsa Charlston.
In 2007, she participated in the Marilyn Horne Masterclass “The Song Continues” at New York’s Carnegie Hall. During the fall of 2009 she performed the role of Adina in Donizetti's Elixir of Love with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the “Opera in the Neighborhoods” Program. She was a Young Artist in the Merola Opera Program of San Francisco Opera summer of 2010.
She was the first place winner of the Western Regional, Metropolitan Opera National Competition of 2011. She was a finalist in the Loren Zachary Competition in 2011; Midwest Regional, Detroit district winner in the Metropolitan Opera in 2008; in 2007 she was in first place for both the Union League and Civic Arts Foundation and the American Opera Society of Chicago; and placed first in 2004 and 2005 for the National Association for Teachers of Singing.
Upcoming performances include the role of The First Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflote and as the soprano soloist in Kurt Weill's Die Zaubernacht both with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Conlon at Chicago's Ravinia Festival.
